Back on April 1st I posted the list of the Full Ballot that I had submitted for my first time nominating works for the Hugo Awards.
This past Easter weekend the internet lit up with posts discussing the list released by the Hugo Awards committee of the finalists for each category.
I stand by my nominees, and was thrilled to see that in the Best Professional Artist category four out of the six (there was a tie) finalists were artists I championed for nomination. As you will see below, I missed it in several other areas. My thoughts on various categories and nominees follow the list.
Best Novel (1595 nominating ballots)
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie (Orbit US/Orbit UK)
Neptune’s Brood, Charles Stross (Ace / Orbit UK)
Parasite, Mira Grant (Orbit US/Orbit UK)
Warbound, Book III of the Grimnoir Chronicles, Larry Correia (Baen Books)
The Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (Tor Books / Orbit UK)
(Note: The Wheel of Time series was nominated as and ruled to be a multi-part serialized single work, as defined in Section 3.2.4 of the WSFS constitution.)
Best Novella (847 nominating ballots)
The Butcher of Khardov, Dan Wells (Privateer Press)
“The Chaplain’s Legacy”, Brad Torgersen (Analog, Jul-Aug 2013)
“Equoid”, Charles Stross (Tor.com, 09-2013)
Six-Gun Snow White, Catherynne M. Valente (Subterranean Press)
“Wakulla Springs”, Andy Duncan and Ellen Klages (Tor.com, 10-2013)
Best Novelette (728 nominating ballots)
“Opera Vita Aeterna”, Vox Day (The Last Witchking, Marcher Lord Hinterlands)
“The Exchange Officers”, Brad Torgersen (Analog, Jan-Feb 2013)
“The Lady Astronaut of Mars”, Mary Robinette Kowal (maryrobinettekowal.com/Tor.com, 09-2013)
“The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling”, Ted Chiang (Subterranean, Fall 2013)
“The Waiting Stars”, Aliette de Bodard (The Other Half of the Sky, Candlemark & Gleam)
Best Short Story (865 nominating ballots)
“If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love”, Rachel Swirsky (Apex Magazine, Mar-2013)
“The Ink Readers of Doi Saket”, Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Tor.com, 04-2013)
“Selkie Stories Are for Losers”, Sofia Samatar (Strange Horizons, Jan-2013)
“The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere”, John Chu (Tor.com, 02-2013)
(Note: Category had only 4 nominees due to the minimum 5% requirement of Section 3.8.5 of the WSFS constitution.)
Best Related Work (752 nominating ballots)
Queers Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the LGBTQ Fans Who Love It, Edited by Sigrid Ellis & Michael Damian Thomas (Mad Norwegian Press)
Speculative Fiction 2012: The Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary, Justin Landon & Jared Shurin (Jurassic London)
“We Have Always Fought: Challenging the Women, Cattle and Slaves Narrative”, Kameron Hurley (A Dribble of Ink)
Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction, Jeff VanderMeer, with Jeremy Zerfoss (Abrams Image)
Writing Excuses Season 8, Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, and Jordan Sanderson
Best Graphic Story (552 nominating ballots)
Girl Genius, Volume 13: Agatha Heterodyne & The Sleeping City, written by Phil and Kaja Foglio; art by Phil Foglio; colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
“The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who”, written by Paul Cornell, illustrated by Jimmy Broxton (Doctor Who Special 2013, IDW)
The Meathouse Man, adapted from the story by George R.R. Martin and illustrated by Raya Golden (Jet City Comics)
Saga, Volume 2, written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics )
“Time”, Randall Munroe (XKCD)
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form (995 nominating ballots)
Frozen,screenplay by Jennifer Lee, directed by Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee (Walt Disney Studios)
Gravity, written by Alfonso Cuarón & Jonás Cuarón, directed by Alfonso Cuarón (Esperanto Filmoj; Heyday Films; Warner Bros.)
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, screenplay by Simon Beaufoy & Michael Arndt, directed by Francis Lawrence (Color Force; Lionsgate)
Iron Man 3, screenplay by Drew Pearce & Shane Black, directed by Shane Black (Marvel Studios; DMG Entertainment; Paramount Pictures)
Pacific Rim, screenplay by Travis Beacham & Guillermo del Toro, directed by Guillermo del Toro (Legendary Pictures, Warner Bros., Disney Double Dare You)
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form (760 nominating ballots)
An Adventure in Space and Time, written by Mark Gatiss, directed by Terry McDonough (BBC Television)
Doctor Who: “The Day of the Doctor”, written by Steven Moffat, directed by Nick Hurran (BBC Television)
Doctor Who: “The Name of the Doctor”, written by Steven Moffat, directed by Saul Metzstein (BBC Televison)
The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, written & directed by Peter Davison (BBC Television)
Game of Thrones: “The Rains of Castamere”, written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, directed by David Nutter (HBO Entertainment in association with Bighead, Littlehead; Television 360; Startling Television and Generator Productions)
Orphan Black: “Variations under Domestication” written by Will Pascoe, directed by John Fawcett (Temple Street Productions; Space/BBC America)
(Note: Category has six nominees due to a tie for the final position.)
Best Editor, Short Form (656 nominating ballots)
John Joseph Adams
Neil Clarke
Ellen Datlow
Jonathan Strahan
Sheila Williams
Best Editor, Long Form (632 nominating ballots)
Ginjer Buchanan
Sheila Gilbert
Liz Gorinsky
Lee Harris
Toni Weisskopf
Best Professional Artist (624 nominating ballots)
Galen Dara
Julie Dillon
Daniel Dos Santos
John Harris
John Picacio
Fiona Staples
(Note: Category has six nominees due to a tie for the final position.)
Best Semiprozine (411 nominating ballots)
Apex Magazine, edited by Lynne M. Thomas, Jason Sizemore, and Michael Damian Thomas
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, edited by Scott H. Andrews
Interzone, edited by Andy Cox
Lightspeed Magazine, edited by John Joseph Adams, Rich Horton, and Stefan Rudnicki
Strange Horizons, edited by Niall Harrison, Brit Mandelo, An Owomoyela, Julia Rios, Sonya Taaffe, Abigail Nussbaum, Rebecca Cross, Anaea Lay, and Shane Gavin
Best Fanzine (478 nominating ballots)
The Book Smugglers, edited by Ana Grilo and Thea James
A Dribble of Ink, edited by Aidan Moher
Elitist Book Reviews, edited by Steven Diamond
Journey Planet, edited by James Bacon, Christopher J Garcia, Lynda E. Rucker, Pete Young, Colin Harris, and Helen J.Montgomery
Pornokitsch, edited by Anne C. Perry and Jared Shurin
Best Fancast (396 nominating ballots)
The Coode Street Podcast, Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe
Galactic Suburbia Podcast, Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Presenters) and Andrew Finch
(Producer)
SF Signal Podcast, Patrick Hester
The Skiffy and Fanty Show, Shaun Duke, Jen Zink, Julia Rios, Paul Weimer, David Annandale, Mike Underwood, and Stina Leicht
Tea and Jeopardy, Emma Newman
Verity! Deborah Stanish, Erika Ensign, Katrina Griffiths, L.M. Myles, Lynne M. Thomas, and Tansy Rayner Roberts
The Writer and the Critic, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond
(Note: Category has seven nominees due to a tie for the final position.)
Best Fan Writer (521 nominating ballots)
Liz Bourke
Kameron Hurley
Foz Meadows
Abigail Nussbaum
Mark Oshiro
Best Fan Artist (316 nominating ballots)
Brad W. Foster
Mandie Manzano
Spring Schoenhuth
Steve Stiles
Sarah Webb
The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (767 nominating ballots)
Wesley Chu
Max Gladstone*
Ramez Naam*
Sofia Samatar*
Benjanun Sriduangkaew
BEST NOVEL:
As I accurately predicted, Ancillary Justice made the list. I was very surprised by how wrong I was about Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman making the list. I didn’t pick any correctly in this category.
I’m very torn about The Wheel of Time making the ballot…actually I’m torn about the series rule. I think there should be either a separate award for this OR a special awarded category that is occasionally on the ballot. Comparing a series to a single novel does not seem to be putting everyone on equal footing in my mind. Despite my best of intentions to read all the nominees when the packet comes out, I will not be making the commitment to read all the WoT books before voting takes place.
BEST NOVELLA:
I only nominated two in this category, one being “Equoid” by Charles Stross, so I was thrilled to see it make the list.
BEST NOVELETTE:
I didn’t get any in this category, but am happy to see the Aliette de Bodard story on the list. I will now get to read it, and chances are had I read it before it might have been on my list. She frequently impresses me.
BEST SHORT STORY:
I didn’t get any in this category.
BEST RELATED WORK:
I nominated “Writing Excuses, Season 8”.
BEST GRAPHIC STORY:
I was under-read in this category and did not nominate.
BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION. LONG FORM:
I nominated Gravity.
BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM:
I nominated Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor.
BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM:
I went an astounding 5 for 5 in this category. Its going to be agony figuring out who to vote for.
BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM:
I didn’t get any in this category.
BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST:
I picked four out of six correctly in this category: John Picacio, Dan Dos Santos, Julie Dillon and John Harris. So great that others picked up on the John Harris vibe and got him on the nominations list. I am thrilled to see Galen Dara on there as well. She was actually on my list too, but in the end could only pick 5. I’ve enjoyed her work on Tor.com and Apex Magazine over the past year.
This is going to be another hard one to pick.
BEST FAN ARTIST:
I didn’t get any in this category, but I am excited about searching out their work.
BEST SEMIPROZINE:
I picked Lightspeed and Apex Magazine. Others on the list are ones I would love to be able to have the time to read.
BEST FANZINE:
I nominated A Dribble of Ink and SF Signal. Even though SF Signal recused themselves last year it seems many of us had the same idea that they deserve to be on the ballot. I’m excited for Aidan Moher at A Dribble of Ink. Great site.
BEST FANCAST:
I nominated the SF Signal Podcast and the Coode Street Podcast. Congrats Patrick, Jonathan and Gary for making the short list!
BEST FAN WRITER:
I didn’t get any in this category.
JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER:
I nominated Wesley Chu.
Overall it is an interesting list. There is already controversy over a couple of authors possibly pushing an agenda who made it onto the list, but I’m less interested in that and more interested in being a part of the voting process. I have some interesting reading (and decision making) ahead of me.
Even though I am (currently) not planning to vote this year (as I didn’t begin the process with the nominations), I will for sure be engaging the the conversation and reading and writing about the vast majority of the nominees.
I already have permission from half the artists to use the work in my art related posts, so I’m rather excited about that.
That is great, Joe. Look forward to the posts. I’m excited that two of the artists, John Picacio and Dan Dos Santos, will be at Spectrum Fantastic Art Live 3 here in a few weeks.
It has been said Tor is putting the entire WoT series into the Hugo voters packet. Almost makes me want to join up and pay the fee.
It amazes me how much new fic I read this year and still only read one of the final novels.
I concentrated much more on new fiction last year and I haven’t read any of them! It is hard to keep up.
Tor did report that they are putting the whole set of novels in the bundle, which I think is really great of them.
I’m a little surprised that Scalzi’s THE HUMAN DIVISION wasn’t nominated, as I felt it was much better than either of the last two books he won for. ANCILLARY JUSTICE also puzzles me. I have read so many comments and reviews describing it as unreadable, un-finishable, written to impress, not entertain,of questionable quality. Yet it seems to be steamrolling toward certain victory. Why? If the everyday reader doesn’t like it that much, is there a group of critics that push books this (and, in literary circles, books like THE GOLDFINCH, which I thought was terrible and finally tossed), praising them as smart, chic, progressive, intellectual or…something? I just don’t get it.
I sure hope Harris wins artist.
I’ve read some of those same review, Richard, but I’ve read just as many who were Wowed by Ancillary Justice. Seems to be a very divisive book. I look forward to weighing in on it when I read it. It just won the British Science Fiction Award.
I’m excited Harris made the list. It is going to be interesting to see who pulls out the win in the artist category. All of the artists who made the list did really good work last year.
Like Rick, I was underwhelmed by Donna Tartt’s THE GOLDFINCH (yet it somehow won a Pulitzer Prize). All the artists have produced work worthy of winning an Award, but I’m cheering for John Harris.
I’ve only read Secret History, which I thought was a gripping read. Very excited that Harris made the list.
Thanks for the support, Carl!
🙂
You are welcome, Aidan. Good luck!
I’m looking forward to your reaction to Leckie. I think you’ll like it, but I’ve been wrong before!
I’m kinda glad that I’ve been incommunicado lately and not taking part in the political mayhem surrounding the Hugos. I’ve got plenty of opinions on it, but happy to let it slide for now.
I am too. I’ve read some of it but am probably done doing so for the time being. I get sick and tired of the negative voices in the community for genres I love. I’d rather lend my voice, and my ear, to more constructive things.